An LTE (Long Term Evolution) system is based on the OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology, and the OFDM technology is used to divide time-frequency resources into OFDM symbols in the time domain and OFDM subcarriers in the frequency domain. To maintain service transmission in the LTE system, a UE needs to perform synchronization, channel state measurement, and RRM (radio resource management) measurement according to a reference signal transmitted by a base station. Specifically, the RRM measurement includes measurement of an RSRP (reference signal received power), RSRQ (reference signal received quality), and RSSI (received signal strength indicator). The RSRP represents an average received power of CRSs that are transmitted by a target measured cell and carried on CRS (cell-specific reference signal) resource elements of the target measured cell; the RSSI represents an average received power of all signals in OFDM symbols in which the CRSs of the target measured cell are located; and the RSRQ is obtained according to a ratio of the RSRP to the RSSI. In addition, the conventional LTE system has a relatively high requirement on power efficiency of a base station, and in future network topology evolution, an operator will deploy a large number of heterogeneous networks. For this reason, a current mainstream heterogeneous network includes a macro base station and a large number of small cells within a range of the macro base station.
In the heterogeneous network that is densely populated with small cells, there is no UE to be served within a range of many small cells, due to high density of network devices. In addition, when all the small cells are in an enabled state, even if no service is transmitted, each small cell still transmits reference information at short intervals, for example, a PSS (primary synchronization signal), an SSS (secondary synchronization signal), a CRS (cell-specific reference signal), and an RCRS (reduced cell-specific reference signal), where a transmission interval of the PSS/SSS/RCRS is 5 subframes, and a transmission interval of the CRS is 1 subframe. The reference information causes strong inter-cell interference. A potential solution is to disable the small cells in which no UE is served, so that these small cells do not transmit the reference information at short intervals, thereby achieving an effect of saving power and reducing inter-cell interference.
However, it is found that disabling or enabling the foregoing small cells causes an interference environment between neighboring cells in an area to change or vary quickly. This increases difficulty in RRM measurement, and imposes a higher requirement on RRM measurement, and the UE is unable to efficiently perform a cell selection, reselection, or handover for a local cell and a neighboring cell.